As IF Times

Source: How, this time, Trump may actually have gone too far (+video) – CSMonitor.com

So this time, according to the article, Donald Trump may have gone too far…he’s crossed the rubicon.  Hmm.  Many will recall when Trump first announced his candidacy for the GOP nomination earlier this summer.  His stated advantage was that since he was more than financially secure, he was not beholden to anyone or any group’s influence.  This meant that he could say what he wanted without fear of antagonizing financial backers or satisfying the established status quo.

He proved that over the ensuing few months by insulting a broad spectrum of people starting with illegal immigrants from Latin America, notably Mexico which set off the Hispanic community.  He also cast the Chinese as, while being clever, also evil in their trade policies.  He crassly insulted Megyn Kelly when she posed a question to him after a debate.  He called Carly Fiorina not attractive.  He insulted a known war hero, John McCain and of course he calls out politicians  for being stupid and incompetent…and those are the ones on his side.   Oddly only his barber has been left unscathed by his biting remarks.

So in summary, he’s notionally offended Hispanics the world over, a few billion Chinese, all women, soldiers and most politicians, left and right.  But now, he’s insulted Muslims! Now the media gets mobilized with outrage to condemn him??  Therefore, while he’s heretofore ‘offended’ well over 80% of the world’s population up to now, it’s only when Muslims appear to be slighted that everyone gets all college student in their indignation.

Only now that the Muslim community is called out do we observe nations threatening to ban Trump from entry; his name being removed from commercial projects; his castigation as a first class racist and a cad to boot.   I think that if anything, this tells the other constituency of insulted groups that they have no pull.  Their PR machinery has nowhere near the kind of influence that Muslims do in protecting their brand.  While The Donald is certainly no slouch when it comes to media manipulation, apparently, neither are the Muslims.

Yet, none of this has really affected Trump’s appeal to his supporters, who presumably come from all sectors of the offended groups. If anything, he seems to grow in approval.  The appeal is not in the man.  It’s in his unvarnished attack on the crippling mentality of political correctness which has infected society at every level.  Whether you like him or not, ironically, Trump is the guy standing up for free speech…and free speech is about freedom to say what’s unpopular, not the ability to get Facebook likes.

UPDATE:  As if to prove Trump’s point, other nations are telling Americans how to behave: Saudi Prince weighs in

link Hispanics not motivated for 2010 election – Washington Times.

The racism accusation is a favorite device used by liberals when trying to gather support from immigrants from opposing conservatives during elections.  Anyone paying attention to the rhetoric knows the opposite is true, that the people supposedly championing racial equality are the same ones treating ethnics as homogeneous blocs. 

While that may be true for a specific segment of the voting population in the US, namely blacks, according to this link,  http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/10/obama-approval-gallup-blacks.html, it’s unlikely that most people necessarily vote along racial lines.  In the case of Latinos, many of whom are escaping their homelands of Mexico or Cuba in order to improve their economic circumstances, personal finance and well being are more important to them than solidarity with  their ethnic brethren.  If they just wanted to hang out with their peeps, presumably, they wouldn’t have taken the trouble to break into the U.S. 

It’s actually insulting to all minorities that just because someone in office is of their race that they should automatically receive the group vote.  It’s always been amusing to me that “Person A” deigns to represent the Asian community, or the Latino community or the Polish community.  Imagine if someone were put forth to represent the White community.  Chris Matthews would be foaming like mentos in a coke bottle. 

Getting back to Latinos, or all ethnics for that matter; they all have one thing in common in their arriving to the U.S., the ambition to make something of themselves in one of the few, if not the only nation left in the world, where you can succeed based only on your hard work.  Most people are driven by the desire for a better life for their family than observance of any group cause.  In that respect, this parallels the desires of most of the larger community.  When you think about it, that was the essence of the founding of the country in the first place 300 years ago. So if politicians are going to pander and lie to the people, at least lie about the things that affect everyone.  Everyone basically wants the same things, jobs, freedom and of course the classic and elusive pursuit of happiness.  Well, most people.

So when the headlines read that Hispanics are not motivated for the 2010 election, maybe, just maybe that’s because the present administration’s policies aren’t viewed favourably by them… as individuals.  People aren’t monolithically stupid because of race.  Bad policies for one are probably bad policies for all.